Day Nine - The Calm Before the Storm.

I'll pick up from when I last left you, yesterday afternoon.

After going to the library, I went back to the firestation to set up my tent for the first time since being here. I found the Dutch person who I mentioned, he'd already set up his tent and was playing with a stove. I went into the fire station to have a shower, then set up my tent. I went over to a local diner for some grilled chicken, and returned to find two more cyclists had joined camp. They were in their mid-twentys I'd guess, and came from Florida. They are going at an overall slower pace than I am, so I'm not sure if i'll run into them later on.

Anyway. My first night under canvas was disturbed. Partly because my gamble on 50% chance of rain didn't pay off, and partly because of the freight trains that ran through Mineral at night. Now I understand that freight trains need to exist, and I understand that they probably need to run through the night. Fine. But I draw the line at them honking their horns (which are LOUD) repeatedly at both two and four o'clock in the morning, when there are perfectly functioning level crossings. That annoyed me.

I got up at about 6:30, and went over to the store to get some food. I bummed around for a bit, and finally got going at 8:45. It was pretty obvious that Today was going to be harder, the weather was ridiculously humid and the fact that I'm approaching the Appalachans meant there were lots of ups and downs.

I arrived in Charlottesville at about 3:30 or so, having caught up with the group in front of me. I now know that this is a led
tour by the Adventure Cycling Assosiation no less (the people that made my maps and the route). I was having a small problem with my bike, which (with the help of the tour leader and an english cyclist, determined that my lower bracket ( I keep forgetting what it's called) was loose. I managed to go to a bike shop that was open until 8pm, so I got that fixed easily, for the costly price of $5.

Tonight, I went out for Chinese with Bert the dutch guy, who I am also going halves on a room with at the moment. I like it here in Charlottesville, it's the home of the University of Virginia so the age demographics are the closest they've been to my age since being here. Its quite a big place, and I half wish I had more time to stay and explore. However, I'd like to get a few more miles behind my back before I start all that kind of stuff.

I'm almost 99% sure I won't be able to update this tomorrow, I'm camping at the 'Cookie Lady's' house. She's lived way up in the mountains since the route was built, apparently it's a must see. I'll let you know as soon as I can how it's all going.